Background A practical problem during the analysis of natural networks is their complexity, thus the use of synthetic circuits would allow to unveil the natural mechanisms of operation. As this minimal circuit is based on a single transcriptional unit, it provides a new mechanism based on post-translational relationships to generate targeted spatio-temporal behavior. Background Synthetic Biology is designed to engineer genetic networks with defined dynamics [1]. For this, it usually relies on the use of design principles derived from the analysis of natural genetic networks. Those networks are large and complex systems with many unfamiliar relationships that can dramatically affect the system dynamics. Then, for any complete understanding of the mechanisms underlying gene networks it is important the executive of synthetic circuits that have a minimal difficulty. In addition, such small circuits would allow the modular design of complex hierarchical constructions with targeted spatial and temporal behaviors. However, even the design of small circuits with existing genetic components is very challenging due to the lack of plenty of guidelines to fine-tune the system. In fact, the use of properly characterized genetic parts favors an accurate prediction of the dynamics of an in vivo implemented circuit [2-5]. The intense case being the design of a genetic network composed of a single transcriptional unit showing a specified spatio-temporal dynamics. As all the protein concentrations shall be coupled, it is very difficult to have a non-trivial dynamics unless the time scales of protein relationships and of cell-to-cell communication are conveniently coupled. In higher organisms, development results from the coordinated action of thousands of genes at any moment during the cell cycle. However, small regulatory circuits control the execution of genetic programs by triggering cell differentiation according to spatial patterns [6]. These patterns result from gradients of signaling molecules, which diffuse in the medium and are sensed at each instant from the cell circuitry. Quantitative models based on reaction-diffusion equations have been successfully applied to understand the principles of organism’s development [7-9]. Furthermore, synthetic patterns have been previously manufactured in bacteria [10] and flies [11]. However, genetic systems with defined spatial and temporal behavior have not been artificially constructed yet. In such a synthetic system, the fate of every cell within the population could be controlled, for instance, by oscillators working in a specific manner in response to spatial location or from the state of an internal memory. It is of particular interest to apply the same design principles underlying naturally happening molecular clocks, where rythmicity is mainly Rabbit polyclonal to PDK4 based on bad opinions loops [12], to the in vivo executive of synthetic oscillatory PD173074 circuits [13,14]. The simplest imaginable genetic circuit consists in one operon having a opinions loop. On the one hand, bad autoregulation promotes robustness [15], but it can also cause oscillations if the process introduces a delay [16-18]. On the other hand, positive autoregulation yields bistability [19]. By combining both structures, we have designed and analyzed theoretically a synthetic genetic circuit with a minimal transcription structure exhibiting multifunctionality (Fig. ?(Fig.1a).1a). We present a mathematical model in the molecular level based on differential equations for the synthetic self-regulated transcription circuit. The system shows oscillatory and bistable behaviors, together with intrinsic robustness via a quorum sensing (QS) mechanism (Fig. ?(Fig.1b)1b) that allows for cellular synchronization [20,21]. The system, which is indicated from plasmids, consists of two transcription factors (TFs) responding to two different chemicals. Therefore, we perform spatio-temporal PD173074 simulations showing different dynamic pattern formation depending on the initial environment. Number 1 Plan of the system and dynamical simulation in the solitary cell level. (a) Scheme of the synthetic gene cassette and the fully regulated promoter forming a delay-inducing DNA loop. Arrows (blunt lines) mean positive (bad) regulations. (b) Quorum … Results and Conversation The system, a single transcriptional unit, consists inside a combinatorial promoter, lactose-luciferase, which settings the manifestation of two PD173074 TFs LacI and LuxR, and the enzyme LuxI (observe Methods for further details). Being all the concentrations of protein species proportional, PD173074 it would make a priori especially hard our targeted dynamics. Fortunately, we can still have a rich dynamics at solitary cell owed to the suitable design of molecular relationships (multimerization and binding events). Furthermore, this model is definitely coupled.